I managed to put in two more posts, and cut out the gate, doesn’t sound a lot but it made me sweat a bit. I even used my laser for the first time.
Of course it was also shopping day, so it was amazing I got anything done at all.
It looks like the neighbours across the road have got a puppy judging by the continuous yapping I hear, crikey, they can barely look after the children they have.
I have taken on a job that I’m quite nervous about. I have to insert a piece of rosewood into the first fret of Matt’s guitar. He bought it cheap because of the damaged fret, and like a fool I said” I can fix that” why don’t I keep my big mouth shut.
I have to build a jig that will allow my small router to cut the old section out, I’ve done it a few times on furniture, but with this I don’t get any second chance.
Well I turned the corner on the fence installation, literally. The progress was limited by the time available, don’t forget it is Sunday and it’s ice cream fest at Kelli’s mums.
I managed to secure the second panel, and then added a third panel at ninety degrees. That was hard, I kept hitting roots under the surface that had to be cut away.
I had to make a decision regarding securing the posts along the long side. I didn’t think that the spikes would be rigid enough in the sandy soil that we have, to remedy that I chose to dig holes and set the spikes in concrete.
I cut notches on the spike with an angle grinder to give some grip and ran to Menards to buy the quick drying concrete designed for use with posts.
I borrowed a hole boring tool from Matt and set about digging. It was easier than I thought, soon I was down two foot, I planned to knock the spikes down a foot and fill the rest with concrete. After propping the post vertical, I poured the dry concrete into the hole, gradually adding water.
Soon it was done.
The next post to be set will be the gate post, then I would make the gate by cutting down a fence panel, but that’s tomorrow’s job.
It was fence building day, finally a project two years in the planning now in progress.
I had decided to use metal spikes that I have to hammer three foot into the ground rather than concrete, mainly because of the roots in the area.
I had decided to aim for three panel installations, I thought that should be achievable.
I had to cut the posts in half first, then came the difficult bit, banging in the posts where I wanted them. Sounds simple but they seemed to go where they damn well wanted to.
The first panel went up, it matched the height of the existing fence, but in order to do that I had to dig a trench to allow the new panel to sit correctly. The second panel wasn’t so easy, there were roots under the surface that interfered with the panel, so they had to be cut out. This fitting took ages, I did assume the panels would be square, but I had real difficulty in getting it level and abut with the fitted panel. I was farting about with it for ages, well until Kelli called me in for dinner.
There the result for an afternoon’s work was one panel fitted, and another panel clamped into position, mm I don’t think I’m quite cutout to erect fences.
I had planned to drive down to John the wood to start building a prototype for some lounge furniture that I want to make, but there were several reasons why that didn’t happen.
I usually gave John a call just to remind him that I was picking him up, but he has a very unreliable phone, so often I have to phone his wife, but this time both their phones were not working.
However I had my fencing delivered and I went out to expect them. What I saw pissed me off big time, and I should have watched them unload, but every panel was crap, and when I say crap they were disgustingly rubbish.
I only needed six panels and they cost me over a hundred dollars to get delivered.
There was one panel with part of the strip missing, the rest had unequal gaps and the timber used? I have burnt better stuff.
I made an immediate visit to Menards, seething and angry, but by the time I got there my mood had mellowed.
I went to the next available person at the building supply checkout and spilled my story and with the aid of pictures made it clear that I was not a happy man.
The lady serving me had a look of sympathy, but said that she could help me, and summoned a manager. Up came a young chap who looked at the pictures and agreed that they were substandard and would arrange for new panels to be delivered and the old ones collected.
That was a relief, but he said that the earliest they could be delivered would be Monday.
So I left the store feeling a bit more happy, and I even tried John the wood again to see if he would answer.
This time the call went through, I told him of my issues and we agree to meet on Tuesday.
I had a few things to do when I got back, so I would waste the day, but halfway through the afternoon there was a call to say that the new panels would be delivered in a few minutes time, but I would have to help to unload.
The white truck arrived a a burley chap jumped out. I showed him where I wanted the panels stacked, and he moved the truck.
The unloading went okay, they were heavy but far better quality, so it was worth the effort.
A very rare event occurred, I forgot to put out the rubbish bin, and it was one of those rare times when the thing was full. I was reminded when the truck went up the road, so Kelli rushed out to place it at the end of the driveway.
I had forgotten that the trucks take an odd route.
It’s not the one that goes up our road, that then comes back down, oh no, that would be too simple (and sensible) it is the truck that goes up the next street that cuts across, and then down our road. The end result was we missed it.
I had a phone bill to pay and Kelli wanted to go thrifting. She has latched on to another side hustle, buying certain clothes, and then selling them. There seems to be a good market for bohemian style items that go like hotcakes. She belongs to a group that sells or trades this type of garments, and they pounce on the postings as soon as they are live, our printer is alway spewing out labels.
So whilst we were out she found a couple of items, one a Mexican poncho that is worth a decent amount, well that went on straight away.
I did a little bit outside, making templates for a project I’m planning for the future, but the hard thing is to get the machines that I have meet the accuracy I want, therefore I also need to make checking gauges as well.
It certainly is colder, I have to cover my legs and arms, soon I will have to put socks on as well.
I finally had a reply from Avid that helped me sort out the issues I was having. A new dongle and a bit of activation, that even I could do, and Protools was working perfectly.
That was a good start of the day.
I spent a bit of time making a cutting jig for my little boxes project. The saw I had was not really designed for precision, although I did take time to set it up as best that I could, I was never sure that mitres were coming out square, so I made a fixture to ensure they would.
I had pieces ready to cut, a quick zip through the saw and they were perfect. I had it glued up with my new belt clamp, thank you China.
I had sanded the top of our latest Goodwill purchase yesterday, so today was staining day.
Now that the pool has been packed away I decided to have a burn up. I had boxes of wood scraps that were in the way, and it was great to get rid of it, by the end of the day I had cleared three large buckets with another two for tomorrow. I am looking forward to be able to walk around without things falling on the floor. One day I hope to do the same to my bench.
The couple who bought the curvy drawer dresser came to collect it, it did take four of us to lift it into their truck. It had taken a while to renovate it but I think it was worth the effort.
It’s been about three months since I had my last hair cut, yes, I have decided to let it grow.
It’s not that I’m going through another crisis in my life, no, I wanted to see if it still worked.
I could have let my ear hair sprout, but that would look weird, so I thought a new style would work better.
Now it’s not the first time I’ve done it, I was always a bit shaggy after my three month Indian trips, but I’m now in uncharted grounds, not seen since I was at school.
Kelli insists that I keep it under control, so I have to use gel to stop it flopping about. I’m not that keen because it feels like my hair is solid, I’m hoping it’s just through the awkward stage, and soon it flow in the breeze.
We took a trip back to Goodwill to collect the dresser/ buffet we bought yesterday. It was a bit rough, obviously someone had started something and didn’t finish it, the reason as it was only five dollars.
I immediately stripped the top, hoping that it was decent, but it was only a pine veneer, might be able to give it a dark stain once I’ve repaired the chunk that was taken out of one corner.
The good news of the day was we sold the mid century dresser for collection tomorrow, that will get the month going well.
This was a day day, our neighbour Larry lost his fight for life. He passed away around 04.00am, finally his suffering is over. It’s strange looking over at his house knowing that I won’t see him driving his ride on mower, cutting the grass or sucking up his leaves.
Kelli was upset, he was alway there to help when she had car trouble, but his health had slowly deteriorated over the past six years, and the end was inevitable.
Welcome to heaven Larry.
This put a downer for the rest of the day, we still had our usual shopping trip, and I ordered the new fencing.
We also finished the other dresser, that is a heavy one, but it turned out good.
It was a day of two haves, morning and afternoon, that was as exciting as it gets.
We had to deliver the dresser that we sold last night, but before we did, I had to line the drawers.
It’s not something that we normally do, but sometimes the floors are a bit grubby, and even after cleaning and sanding they are not good.
It is my job to do this because I try to do a perfect job, that is no wrinkles.
I had six drawers to do, so armed with a cutting knife a steel ruler, I measured and cut the lining material. Of course I made the assumption that the drawers were square, but made an allowance for that. The skill in applying the liner is very much like making a pizza base, but without the spinning. Getting one edge aligned is important, that often needs several attempts, once down, it has to be smoothed out.
Six drawers later I was done, we loaded it into the truck and set off. The lady who bought it said she lived about a mile away, well I don’t know what measures she used but it was more than a bloody mile. We were on fumes by the time we arrived. Unloading was easy, no stairs, we set it down in the driveway.
The next order of the day was getting petrol, I went inside to pay, the attendant recognised my accent, so I gave him a quick geography lesson, he was none the wiser.
We then went to Kelli’s mums for our regular Sunday ice cream orgy.
Matt was telling us stories of the places he worked, most were working with timber, either saw mills or wood components. One place he loved working at burnt down during the night, he got there in the morning to be met with a pile of burning ash. Other places closed without notice, he began to feel that he had a reputation, because places closed even before he got there.
All this made us laugh, there should be a tourist trail noting all the businesses Matt had worked at, some still standing that is.
There was good news on the cat, Dylan sent pictures of what looked like a relaxed happy cat.
That’s good because the scratches he has on his arms should heal in a couple of weeks.
After my rant of yesterday I did receive a reply from Avid.
This is a mystery, an email from my iPhone gets bounced back, but forwarded to the Gmail on my American phone, to the same email address gets through, what is going on there?
I followed the advice given, and managed to upgrade my protools software, but my ilok still gave me problems, so another return message was sent out.
I was due to meet Henry Brimmer for a coffee. I had arranged and rearranged this many times, but this time I was sure that it would happen.
However Kelli had arranged with Dylan to collect Larry’s cat around the same time. Working around that, I drove to the coffee shop and ordered my latte, I then received an email from Henry informing me that we will have to rearrange yet again for next week. I don’t mind sitting down and drinking coffee, but I don’t like looking like a saddo sitting on my own. I have to question if this will ever happen, and it reminds me that I have written before about how hard it is to meet up with people, how I am always extending myself to arrange events and others don’t.
Still I was able to get back home and give moral support to Dylan who had the task of getting an angry cat into a carrying box. After about two hours he appeared victorious, albeit baring a few major scratches on his arms.
Animals don’t appreciate the trouble we go to trying to improve their lives, all they want to do is resist, and hurt us.
It is now safely living in Grand Rapids with someone who is around all the time, I hope things work out well for both of them.
This morning we took pictures of the latest dresser, posted it, and sold it by the evening.
Another Lifetime to go 