I worked my socks off today, and soaked a couple of T-shirts as well.
First we delivered the dresser/small wardrobe unit that we repainted to the lady up the road.
And typically I didn’t take any pictures, damn it!
I stripped a bookcase that we have sold to the same lady up the road, and I did work on the kitchen island.
Kelli went off to do stuff, so I could play my old git music.
When she came back, she had this expression on her face, as if to say “I’m brilliant” she had found a dresser at the side of the road, free.
She managed to get it into the truck, on her own.
It was in good shape, nothing that a blob of Bondo wouldn’t fix, and a drawer side that was damaged, nothing that Pete couldn’t fix.
There was drama across the road, two police vehicles turned up and started talking to the loud lady from the house. It’s been a while since there has been police activity, and maybe things might be coming to a head over there.
I have never been a particularly religious person. The bible for me was just a book with interesting good advice. I’ve had many conversations with deeply religious people where I’ve laid out my own beliefs, and respected theirs.
I’ve alway had a problem with Darwin’s theory of evolution, mainly if we evolved from apes, why don’t we still see any stages in between.
I guess at this late stage of my life I’ve taken another look at the book, particularly the Old Testament, strangely this has had an effect on me, this shocked, and surprised me, and some things have started to make sense.
I won’t go into any details yet, as I’m still trying to make sense of it, and I don’t want you to think I’m going off my rocker.
It was a hot and humid day, it was difficult to breathe, and I did what I wanted to do early so that I didn’t melt.
Poor Larry had the first responders turn up again, with the ambulance arriving straight after. They carted him off to hospital again.
We checked on the bug traps, there were hundreds of them in the bag, we moved them around so that we don’t miss an area, hopefully during the next eight weeks we will have eradicated the buggers.
My meeting with John the woodman didn’t happen but I did meet up with Lloyd for a well deserved cold beer.
The sad new was that the little bird died. Matt had sent through a video of the little chap chirping and hopping around the cage. We were all hoping that it would grow and be released back into the wild, but it suddenly deteriorated through the day. Matt thought that it might have been cast out of the nest because it was weak, nature can be cruel sometimes.
We sold the tall dresser that we got from Goodwill yesterday, a couple drove from Grand Rapids to collect, that was a good result.
My traps for capturing Japanese beetles turned up today. In total there were three that we installed around the garden. Almost immediately there were beetles everywhere, it was like the ground erupted, they were drawn to the aroma that stunned them, and they then fell into a bag.
There were hundreds, I had never seen so many, I bet we were drawing them from all the houses in the neighbourhood, I don’t care, they had eaten all the leaves of most of the plants we moved into the new bed, it was disheartening.
It was very hot today, even a float in the pool did not cool us down, instead we were like two potatoes in a pan, slowly boiling.
I phoned John the wood man to talk about the top I need for the kitchen island. I arranged to meet him to discuss tomorrow, I’m sure that will be interesting, if he can remember who I am.
I had my own pain treatment today. Kelli booked me in with her doctor’s surgery because I had an aching right wrist. I’ve had it about a month, and it has limited my ability to lift things. I cannot pinpoint a time when it happened, other than to say I must have been lifting something heavy.
Anyway I hadn’t done anything about it because if it’s a muscle strain, it will take a long time to heal, however it didn’t seem to be getting less painful, hence Kelli intervention.
For a change I saw Simon, one of the new troop of doctors at the practice. For once I was front and centre, so I explained my condition.
Then for the next thirty minutes he bent and twisted my arm in every direction possible.
Some of the movements bloody hurt, but I was hoping that would lead to a possible cause. He traced the muscles up to my elbow, and hit a point that hurt also, his intension was to get me back the strength in the arm, and the pain should decrease with a bit more time.
The hard bit for me is to try not to lift things or any strenuous motion, that will be hard.
I will probably strap it up so I can get on to do stuff.
I was due to meet up with Henry, the guy we met a month ago when we picked up a big heavy dresser, come to think of it, that might be the thing that caused my problem. Anyway that didn’t happen, so we will reschedule.
That meant that I could do more work.
Oh, whilst we were in Zeeland, we made a stop at Goodwill, what else would we do?
Well there was a tall dresser there, I hesitated, should I tell Kelli? Certainly after I complained that we have too many projects in the garage, well I had to.
She thought that we could do a flip on it, do we loaded it into the truck and headed home.
On closer inspection we found a few small blemishes that needed attention, including a drawer runner that was missing. A quick part was machined up and fitted, and once the sun stopped making shadows, we took pictures.
Hopefully it will sell fast, now there is very little room in the garage.
It is often said that things happen when you least expect it, call it fate or destiny, or just good fortune. On the way to the supermarket Kelli took a different route, not sure why, but along that road we came across a dresser on the side of the road, of course I didn’t see it although it was on my side of the road.
It was heavy, and tall, but it went into the back, and we continued on our way to Aldi.
That was uneventful, but as we were leaving the Car park, Kelli spotted a small bird on the tarmac, it looked like it couldn’t fly, but rather hopped away as we approached. She managed to pick it up, and I found a small box to put it in.
Now what are we going to do with it? The only person who has any affinity with wild birds is Kelli’s brother Matt. A quick phone call got him interested, so we made our way back to hand it over. On the way Kelli fed it some fresh raspberries which it seemed to like.
As soon as Matt saw the little thing he was able to hold it in his open palm, at no time did the little bird try to fly away. It was wonderful to see, he was fed more berries, and he even went to sleep on Matt’s hand.
I hope the little thing survives, his success rate is high, and I’m sure, as it’s a fledgling, it will.
It was our day of rest, so typically we had to go and collect furniture. This time it was to Zeeland to collect a small bookcase. The address was on a very posh estate where the grass was green, and well manicured. The houses were large and some even impressive, so when we arrived it must have been like Steptoe and Son’s horse and cart turning up. Not wanting to bring the neighbourhood down we quickly loaded the piece in the back of the truck, and beat a hasty retreat.
I have to admit I was wrong about the headboard, I said last night we might be lucky to sell it, well we did, and the buyer traveled two hours to collect it. Sure we didn’t make a lot of money on it, but it was free, and the customer was overjoyed with it.
We had a new camera delivered, it’s a Nikon P900, it has an amazing zoom and macro lens, so look forward to some interesting pictures of planets and plants.
We finally sold the secretary, however with a half an hour to go before the lady would arrive, Kelli decided that we should put a liner in the bottom of the drawers. So who was going to do that? Me of course.
So with the clock ticking, I set about measuring, and marking, then cutting the bloody lining paper. I hate doing this job, getting the liner to sit correctly is an art in itself. Many times I’m left with a ridge, or an air pocket that has to be removed, and I hate to work under presser,
Fortunately it went well, the drawers looked much better, and the lady loved the piece, which was just as well as the price had been lowered for our “ Weekend Sale”, I aware that people watch our posts, and wait for the price to go down, buggers! Anyway it’s gone and it’s on to the next job.
I continue to strip the paint of the door, the stripper only removes one layer at a time, I believe that other states allow the purchase of some really bad stuff that would eat its way to the centre of the earth, now that’s what I call stripper.
The weather was a little cooler, with a few drops of rain, that I didn’t even feel, I realised it only when I saw the drops on the ground.
Kelli came rushing back from some errands she had done mouthing something through the truck’s windscreen, of course I had no idea what she was saying. Once the window was down I heard “head board” immediately my heart sank.
We’ve had some success with them, but mostly they clog up the place.
She had seen one by the side of the road and needed my help to collect it.
So still covered in sawdust, as I usually am, I climbed aboard and we set off.
There it was in the front of someone’s garden with a large “free” sign attached to it.
Now headboard sizes are very deceptive, It becomes apparent when you try to load it into the back of the truck, it’s okay if the finials are removable, but those that aren’t can be tricky. This was the case, we managed to get the front half in but the back half had to stick out the back, not a big deal as we lived a short distance away.
Once we were back we untangled the piece from the back of the truck, did a clean up and polish, took some pictures, and posted it. Kelli did it again, (that’s if we sell the thing.)
With the lower temperatures there was a renewed enthusiasm to get stuff done.
We had to collect the furniture piece from the lady up the road who wants us to refinish it.
Then it was off to the garden Center to buy some marigolds that, I hope will keep the beetles from eating the leaves of the plants in the front garden. It is so demoralising to see them in such a sad state.
Then it was back home to do some work. I was jumping around working on three jobs sequentially, it was exhausting, but a quick dip in the pool was great.
It was pleasant not being bombarded with political stuff. Not being hit with the situation in Ukraine or Israel, which is pointless, and the banning of Geo engineering. I just want a quiet life, that I can live with Kelli, eat good food and challenge each other on issues that keep our brains turning.
Kelli found documentaries about all the beautiful buildings that were supposed to have been built by people who could barely cut a piece of wood, this is blowing my mind at the moment.
A big temperature drop today, and I noticed it the moment I walked out the front door.
The AC in the truck was immediately turned off, not sure if this a downward trend, but it was noticeably different.
Kelli had a doctor’s appointment, so off to Zeeland we went, stopped off at Plato’s with more of Kelli’s clothes to convert into cash.
The appointment was quite low key, she continues to progress, and he was excited to hear that she is using radical acceptance as a way to control her anger when she gets awaken and unable to return to sleep.
It makes a big difference for me also.
There was no pool day, but I did make some progress on the island. The door that is the basis for the structure had been cut down so I could use the bottom section as a return. This left me with an incomplete end, so today I inserted a new piece of timber to make the piece more symmetrical. There is still a lot of structural pieces to build, but now I have more paint to strip off.
It was another heavy day, the heat was oppressive, I continued removing the paint from the old door. It was not easy, the stripper dried before it had a chance to act on the paint. I made more progress with a sharp chisel, finally finishing one side of the door.
It was a great day for gluing up wood pieces, for the construction of the island.
By the end of that, I was a dripping mess, my eyes were stinging from the sweat oozing from my forehead, a break for lunch gave me the opportunity to change to get in the pool.
That is always a fantastic relief, however my float somehow developed a leak, and slowly I sank beneath the surface.
It gave me the energy to finish off sanding a dresser, and finish machining all my timber.
The weather certainly saps my strength, the ground is crying out for water, lots of it.
Another Lifetime to go 