Another Lifetime to go

12th August 2020

We both worked on the two dressers that were in progress in the garage, desperate to get some sales for the month.

The pool was calling us, it was a hot day and the water was so inviting. I held Kelli back as long as I could, but it was inevitable that we would end up in it. Kelli is such a wimp because she hates cold water. In my opinion it was a perfect temperature. I lunged into my inflatable ring whilst Kelli apprehensively tackled the lilo. An ear piercing scream signalled her contact with the water. A sound most of the surrounding neighbourhood are now used too. It even frightens the crows who have been decidedly noisy the past few days.

We only had a short time because we were invited by Steve Kubica and his wife Jackie for a boat ride up and down the Saugatuck river in his pontoon boat with dinner afterwards.

It was a fun evening with a great vegan feast and drinks.

11th August 2020

With my list of pool repair materials we headed off to Menards.

First was a roll of “FlexTape”, a material that could be applied to a hole in a sinking ship. The Titanic could have been saved with a few rolls of this stuff.

The next was “Water Weld” an epoxy putty that could also be applied underwater.

We felt confident that we could do the repair and be floating around in it within hours.

I completed the drain, and located the tiny hole close to a weld line. I dried the area and applied a massive patch that covered the hole, and some other dodgy places.

This was obviously a manufacturing quality problem, caused by an inexperienced seven year old Chinese kid who made the product.

The next task was reinforcing the repair on the inside which was much more complex as the hole was really close to a fold. This is where the epoxy putty came into its own. A quick slice and a mix with the fingers and it was ready to apply.

Once it was moulded into place the repair was done, we tested it with a little water and it was good, so we re-pumped the water back from the old pool to the new, this time the water was warm from heat from the sun, Kelli was happy with that.

We worked on some furniture pieces whilst the pool was being filled, once that was completed we couldn’t wait to try it.

Right from the start we knew it was better, we had more room to move about, and we wouldn’t have to keep topping up the air, we could do what the pool was intended for, being lazy.

10th August 2020

Kelli was off early to pick up her new pool, I had a couple of things to work on in the garage, which included a lot of scraping.

When she returned, we did a lot more preparation of the ground to make sure it was level for the different shaped pool.

We used a lot of the sand from the sandbags to fill the uneven surface before moving it into shape.

The pool was still in its original packaging as the previous owner had never used it.

We lifted it into place and proceeded to inflate the top ring which is the only part that need air, the rest of the pool is shaped by the water within it.

Now was the long process of filling it.

As the water gushed in I noticed a pool of water near the emptying plug, thinking it was not fully tightened, I checked the plug. There was nothing wrong with that. I then noticed beads of water coming from a small hole near a seam. The bloody thing had a leak!!!

I stopped the filling and showed Kelli the problem. She was gutted, this was supposed to be a step up in pool leagues tables, and now we were no better off than we were with the old one.

There were repair patches in the box, but I wanted to see if there was a better method.

We were now in a position of having a half full pool that was leaking and no convincing way of fixing it.

Kelli contacted the seller, but what would they do? The product was still sealed in the box, so there was no tampering. She contacted the manufacturer, but of course with no receipt they weren’t interested, so we were on our own.

I spent time watching YouTube videos of people who have repaired pools with out draining them, but our leak was on the underside seam, so draining it was inevitable.

Fortunately we had the old pool to drain the water into, saving us wasting it.

Then the thunderstorm started, adding more water to what we had to pump, it looked like the heavens were laughing at us.

9th April 2020

My idea of fun was not trying to level the pool area. I was encouraged when I saw the cloudy skies, that the possibility that it would not be so unbelievably hot. But I was wrong.

I scraped the soil with my long sprit level trying to remove high spots whilst Kelli was making sure the pool was fully inflated.

With my clothing becoming sodden with perspiration I scraped away gradually levelling the ground.

It was not perfect, but it was better than it was, we placed the pool in position, and proceeded to fill it up.

We floated around for a few hours, but Kelli was still not convinced the the pool was right which is why she later announced that she had made an executive decision to buy a different one. She had been following one for sale on market place which was a circular design that didn’t rely on a number of inflated portions, so hopefully it will be less time consuming to maintain.

8th August 2020

The weather forecast on my phone said sunny, we excitedly took the cover off the pool to allow the water to warm up.

We then went to a landscape company to inquire about material for the forthcoming patio project, the sun was still sunny.

Stopped off at Goodwill to check out what was on offer, nothing, still sunny.

Finished off the garden bedding next to the shed, laying new soil and mulch, still sunny.

Stopped for something to eat, finished eating, sun hid behind clouds, Kelli was pissed.

We managed to get a little pool time in between the clouds, so it wasn’t a complete waste.

During the soak, Kelli decided that the pool should be moved as it had been constrained on two sides leaving the other sides to go where it wanted, this led to a bit of imbalance of shape.

At nine in the evening we started to drain the water, we were still going at ten, eventually it was empty, and we were able to reposition and to re-inflate it so that it regained a bit of its proper shape.

This is where I made the fatal mistake of suggesting that I level the area before refilling the pool. This was jumped upon, so guess what I’m doing tomorrow morning?

7th August 2020

Something strange happened to our pool last night. We awoke to find the top section was deflated and most of the water had disappeared. A feeling of panic set in.

There was no soaking ground around the pool to indicate a massive loss of water. The only possibility was the drain plug not seated properly, but there was no obvious problem with that. So we added air and water to check what was going on.

I visually inspected the top section inch by inch, and located three pin holes which might have been caused by sparks from the bonfire a feet away.

I thought the tarpaulin was in place to protect it from flying sparks, bloody annoying, but it was the only explanation. We release more air from the pool and applied patches to the damaged area.

We waited the required length of time before re-inflating, by which time the sun had gone in.

In between all the drama I managed to fit the back panel to the lady’s cabinet and re-built the small drawers for the dresser Kelli is working on.

Part of the morning routine is letting the”Bitches” out for their constitutional walk around the garden.

Phoebe has her nose pressed against the door ready to take off after the squirrels who are usually on or around the bird feeder.

What follows is a race to the death between the two animals, each not knowing that as long as the squirrel stays at the top of the fence it will be safe.

Phoebe would need wings, and a jet engine to stand a chance of catching the speeding rodents.

6th August 2020

Output at Bristol Cottage has been a bit slow because the frontage to the house has taken longer than we thought.

Today we finally added the pebbles to the last trough, and were able to stand back and admire them.

That is another job ticked off the list.

I had been doing a few things on the furniture we have in the garage.

There are two drawers from the last dresser we picked up that needed repairs to the side panels. In between those I finished making the back panel the lady wanted adding to the piece she had purchased on Monday.

We have allowed ourselves a bit of slack due to the warm weather, but as long as we make some progress I will have undisturbed sleep patterns.

We emptied the pool, and gave it a good clean. After a couple of weeks it has to be changed, mainly to regain its shape. Over time it does tend to morph into an alien form, so a rearrangement to our support barriers keep it good for a while.

I lit another bonfire to burn more bush debris, it was amazing how much stuff there was to get rid of.

I should have mentioned to the local evangelicals about me and a burning bush.

5th August Wednesday

We had a delivery of some trim strips to repair a window at the front. Kelli had contacted the manufacturer and identified the parts we needed. So at phenomenal cost the parts were ordered.

The difficult part was removing the old bits that were brittle with age. They were pressed into the gap between the two window frames to seal them. The extrusion was deep with a fir-tree feature at both ends. I managed to ease one out with a pair of paint scrapers, but the other one was really hard. In the end I had to feed a thin saw blade between to cut the fir-tree, that did the trick.

The extruded parts were the same colour and length so I was able to tap those into place quite easily.

Whilst I was doing all that Kelli was pumping up the pool, this has become a daily event and detracts from the enjoyment of using it.

4th August 2020

We heard from the customer that they had been in a car accident the evening before, so that is why the furniture piece was not collected, the lengths some people go to.

She loved the piece, but thought that I was going to make a complete back panel for it.

My understanding was not the same, but I agreed to add a panel in the centre location. I am doomed, that thing will be stuck round my neck till the end of time.

We positioned the second trough, and planted more grasses. The frontage is really looking good, and it won’t need clipping.

I lit a bonfire to burn all the infected bushes, that created a huge plume of smoke to annoy the neighbours, I expected a visit from the fire service.

There are the wonderful sounds at night time here, the crickets are very noisy. I have yet to hear the tree frogs.

3rd August 2020

We had to drive to Hamilton to collect a dresser Kelli found on Marketplace.

I’m getting used to the various routes we take, always ready to grab the wheel when she spies a Trump placard in someone’s garden and wants to drive over it.

The dresser wasn’t anything special, plain white that I’m sure we can turn into something different and sell quickly.

I suggested whilst we we out to find a garden centre that might have grasses for our new metal troughs.

A quick tap on the GPS and discovered one just six minutes away.

Well the Ponderosa garden centre was not the centre of anyone’s universe. It took us a while to find the entrance. When we eventually did a young Mexican lad almost died of shock that any customers had found the place.

He led us into one large greenhouse with a massive fan trying unsuccessfully to suck the hot air out. Inside there was a sad selection of plants that obviously no one wanted. He led us through a dark area to another hot house that had even less selection. In a last attempt to tempt us into buying something he led us past a small dispatch area where two more Mexican were picking dead leaves off some small bushes due to be shipped out.

The whole place had a creepy air about it, mainly due to the lack of any other customers.

The dark areas reminded us of a horror film where unsuspecting visitors were never seen again.

If I heard the sound of a chainsaw start up, we’d be out of there at light speed.

We decided that the garden centre in Holland was a much better bet for the things we wanted.

Sure enough the selection was great and in a short time we had amassed a varied stack of grasses. But isn’t dirt so expensive? Well gardening is bloody expensive, I hope the stuff doesn’t die.

When we got back Kelli couldn’t wait to fill the first trough. I got some spare dirt from the back garden to supplement what we had bought, and just as well because the six bags was just enough.

We carried on and removed another two diseased bushes ready for the next trough to be set in position.

We were waiting for a customer to collect the project piece we had finished to their choice.

The time went by, they were having dinner in Douglas stopping at our place on their way back. By nine thirty we gave up hope of that happening, so I guess it will be on Marketplace tomorrow.