Another Lifetime to go

14th August 2025

There are still things about the US that I don’t understand, and after six years, I still don’t.

For example, why are coffee tables littered with books, piles of them? They take up so much room, there’s no room for a cup of coffee.

Also, and this is a pet peeve of mine, why is empty cans and plastic bags thrown in the sink?

Why? They have to be fished out, all wet and yucky, and thrown in the rubbish bin.

Another one, but this is a question that nobody can answer, why are satellite dishes angled at forty five degrees, and not straight up where the satellites should be?

These are the things that I think about whilst I’m doing boring things like scraping and sanding.

I did some sanding on the chair that John the wood gave me to finish, it was nice to work on a decent timber piece.

Kelli started working on a dresser she picked up a few days ago, it was supposed to be a quick flip, but the paint job wasn’t up to much, so she decided to repaint it.

As she is in her blue period, well we have a large pot of blue, that was her choice.

The bed frame finally was collected today.

A couple drove up from South Haven, they saw the stickers on the truck about banning property tax, and could wait to share the same sentiment.

Mmm, looks like we could have new friends.

Whilst they were with us they saw the dresser that Kelli was working on, and bought it there and then.

Artificial Intelligence is gaining momentum, adverts on the media spouting the benefits of how it can improve businesses.

All that it does is make talent redundant, it soaks up information and replicates everything.

Journalists and writers will not be needed, musicians and songwriters will go to. Art and artists will be irrelevant, and people don’t care.

I have no need for it, I enjoy writing my blog for my one reader, spelling mistakes and all.

AI makes us lazy, Kelli has noticed that sellers on Marketplace are using it to describe the thing they are selling. Soon we won’t be able to believe what we see, and we are letting it happen.

  

13th August 2025

Kelli managed to sell both the bed frame and the headboard. The headboard went to Debs, a lady who lives close by, she intends to paint it red and use it in her garden. She has quite an interesting plot that has all kinds of things in it to display all her plants, including an old boat that will never see the water again.

I had the arduous task of scraping and sanding the footboard on the refinishing commission.

I worked on it for three ours, and that’s just one side. The timber used was not the best, and stripping it back to raw showed a few imperfections. Some of the stain had soaked deeper into the grain leaving a series of red blotches. I wasn’t sure that it would be acceptable to put a clear finish on it. Kelli called the customer, and they came over to view progress. They didn’t seemed concerned about the blotching and were happy to finish it as intended.

All this put me back a bit, but tomorrow is another day.

12th August 2025

Yet another trip to John the wood’s workshop, I picked him up at the usual time from his home.

The jobs today consisted of taking all the clamps off and sanding the bottom surface, then cutting it to size. I thought that would be the last day needed to finish the top.

Of course I underestimated the task, although I did establish just how heavy it was, even though I had tried to save weight by not having material in the centre area, but it was heavy.

Both of us carried it over to the saw, and ran it through once, so far so good. We spun it round to get the width, and through the saw it went.

I noticed that the dowels ends we visible, I had forgotten that one side had a narrow strip.

That was annoying. 

Next was the cutting to length, that went without incident, but the issue with the visible dowels was staring me in the face. 

The only answer was to add a thick edge band to both long edges, this would be the hidden when the radius was machined all around the top edge.

What timber that I had left was not good, which was why I rejected it in the first place. John went down into the basement and later emerged with another plank. 

We machined that to the correct sizes and glued that to the top. Again I must have used every long clamp he had, but finally it was done.

On the next visit, hopefully we will get to finish the damn thing.

I think our relationship is growing, I’m able to make him laugh, but I have been pushing him harder than he pushes himself. He said that I have even taught him a few things, probably not to work with me again.

But he remembers my name now, and has started showing me al the old tools he has.

I feel I have entered his world, he agrees that tools are never owned, just borrowed, then passed on. I have chisels that have names or initials stamped on them, you feel the legacy that you are continuing.

His passion for timber, is why he does what he does, it’s what keeps him going, even in his sometimes confused state of mind.

I brought his chair back that he asked me to finish, it’s made from walnut, and it will look beautiful when it’s done, I’m looking forward to doing that for him.

11th August 2025

The start of another week, the same routine as last week, shopping then back to get jobs done.

Kelli worked on the two beds we picked up yesterday, they needed to get done and posted.

Space in the garage was next to nothing, although we did sell the small dresser to a couple expecting their second baby, from the looks of her she could have dropped one right on the driveway.

I was darting between pouring stripper on the door and scraping a dresser, once the dresser had gone I got the saw going.

During our restful period in the evening, we were watching a documentary on the moon landing, where certain things were explained, and why there is growing doubt that it even happened.

One big reason was the Van Allen belt, a series of high radiation bands around the Earth that no human could ever break through. This was fascinating, back at the time of the Apollo missions this risk was hardly considered, even though experiments were carried out in the late fifties. This entailed firing rockets into the atmosphere, each one failed to break through this invisible barrier.

The latest mission, Orion is continuing to perplex the experts, they acknowledge the existence of a barrier, and are trying to come up with a way through.

Looking and hearing all this information, has made me think, and this is just the tip of the iceberg.

10th August 2025

So it was off to Hudsonville to collect another bed frame, yes, we are back on the road for more bed frames, there was also one in Grand Rapids, ( the dodgy part) Kelli is hoping to flip them quickly. That ate up quite a bit of time, not that I should be working, but there is still a lot of work needed to get the balance of payment by the end of the month. There were things I did before we left, so I didn’t feel so bad.

It was another hot day, everything is dry as a bone and no amount of watering would make any difference, and it looks like one of my Apple trees is dying, the leaves are all turning brown, and it’s a sad sight to see.

What the heck is happening to the world? Bill bloody Gates is backing a company that makes butter from carbon. This is more of the climate change crap, and people are buying it ( no pun intended) why doesn’t this evil little man just fade away. He still pushes the theory that cow farts are harming the environment more than car exhausts.

Well Bill, I will stay in a shed full of cows for the night, you can share a night in a garage with a running engine, let’s see who’s up for breakfast in the morning?

All this is contributing to all the fear that is pumped out everyday to control us. I am trying to analyse what is said, and learn the difference between what’s good and what is evil, and there is a lot of evil everywhere, and most of it is hidden in plain sight. I wish more people would take a step back and really take notice. We all live in a beautiful world, that is slowly being destroyed.

9th August 2025

We took a ride down to the beach at point west.

We can gain entry to the private area because Kelli knows someone who owns a cottage on the beach front. We haven’t been there much this summer, which is typical, it’s so close you forget it’s there, we were trying out our new camera on the ships out on the horizon, boy, does this have a zoom lens or what!

I had my list of things to do in order to catch up on the time I’ve done other things. I needed to finish the legs for the small dresser, start on the refinishing bed and dresser commission, and start stripping the other side of the door for the kitchen island project.

There was even time for a quick splash in the pool. The frogs seem to be getting used to their new home, so far we have seen five chilling on the rocks, not sure where the other seven are.

My personal project has had to take a back seat, which is annoying, but there is enough to keep my sanity from going into overdrive.

I watched a documentary on buildings that defy the era they were built. I’ve always been interested in architecture, and intrigued by the level of detail that goes into these buildings.

I may have mentioned it before, but these buildings were constructed at a time when that level of skill was just a hammer, chisel, and horse and carts.

I’m sure we couldn’t build them today even using modern technology, if we could they would cost a fortune, and would we appreciate that level of detail for a council building, for example? The program raises more questions than answers, but that suits my current level of interest, there is so much we take for granted, and never question, maybe we should, it could change everything.

8th August 2025

It was back with John the wood, this time to add more timber to increase the thickness. This was an easy, quick job, I thought, but it took a lot of glue, and most of the small clamps John had in his shop. Now all that is left is cutting to the final size and sanding.

There was a visit from one of John’s neighbours who helps out often, they talked about the timber that was drying in the kiln. As it has not reached the required moisture content it would have to stay in for the weekend. I breathed a sign of relief because I had volunteered my chicken arms to help unload the stack.

Before leaving for the day John disappeared upstairs and emerged with an old wooden chair that he asked me to finish. I was only to happy to do this for him, he had already stripped it, making it a much simpler job.

On the way back to John’s home it poured with rain, the wet stuff that has been missing from Holland, it was very localised, the sky was still blue, and it made very little difference to the temperature.

I now know the journey to John’s house off by heart, so I don’t miss turnings any more.

By the time I got home there were some jobs I needed to do for the small dresser that Kelli worked on whilst I was away. I needed to make some short legs to life the thing a bit higher, once that was done I allowed myself to rest for the evening.

7th August 2025

Off to the dentist this morning, as usual I was expecting a big bill for a scale and polish. I was also expecting “the extras” to be factored in, bring the total to around $280. 

Today I wanted to confront these “extras”.

Firstly I don’t have the fluoride, but they usually flush around the teeth with an antiseptic liquid which is usually priced at $80 a squirt.

I got to the reception and the lady handed me a form where I had to sign that I wasn’t having the fluoride or irrigation, which was the subject of my intended rant, and when my bill was given to me it was $160, so I don’t know why it was less than I expected.

It was also my beer session with Lloyd, two hours of wide ranging topics that alway end up with both of us talking about food.

I explained the evolution of the traditional English breakfast, how it changed over the years. I told that originally it was egg, bacon and fried bread, then a sausage was added, followed by baked beans, then button mushrooms, finally black pudding was added to appease the northerners. At some stage hash browns were included to pacify the Americans.

By the time I got to the end my mouth was watering, so we have agree to meet for breakfast once a month, I think I am now on a projected downward spiral.

As I left the pub I caught sight a kid on an electric scooter, boy he was going fast, I could never get to that speed even with leg power.

6th August 2025

Looking at the back garden, especially the lawn, I have decided to take drastic action.

We are too busy with our furniture business to have the time to keep the grass in good condition, so come the autumn we will add more flower and vegetable beds, create a more manageable area close to the deck, and paths that wind around the wild grasses and trees.  

I like the effect of natural gardens, so it will be fun trying to build it, and not so depressing watching the lawn dry out and die.

Now back to the present, we sold the bed frame to a great couple who want to install it in their home as a spare bed for an elderly relative.

I spent a long time talking to them about their house and the business he runs.

 Another commission came in.  This time we have to refinish a dresser and bed frame, it looks like bed frames are the thing at the moment.

There is also a mirror that is in need of some care and attention.

I made some progress on the kitchen island, I managed to glue up the second division frame.

However, with all this new work, space will be a problem, but commissions pay better than Marketplace pieces.

5th August 2025

Back to the Byron Center for more woodworking with John. This was the final gluing together of the two sections that make the kitchen island top.

Whilst we were there John was distracted by another customer who wanted a plank of walnut.

That left me alone to do the final assembly. I could hear them muttering downstairs, finally emerging with the piece of lumber.

For me this was going to be a short day, but as always I got distracted by a piece of white oak that John had in his scrap bin. This would be ideal for another project that has been spinning around in my head, so I asked him if I could have it. The first job was to cut it through the middle to half the thickness, then run it through the planer to get it to the thickness I needed.

Once that was done John started on the sanding the island top, even though there were clamps still in place,he wanted to show me what the finish would look like, the beech was so smooth, it will be perfect when it’s finished.

I spent a bit of time helping him look for keys to the workshop, he put them down somewhere. I engaged my super powers and worked my way through the workshop. He didn’t help much trying to recall his movements that day, but I carried on regardless. He wandered back downstairs, and gave a squeal of delight when he found them.

That was a good time to close up the shop and head for home.