Another Lifetime to go

30th May 2024

I enjoy seeing a furniture piece leave, and the buyer delighted with their purchase. I like it also that we get so many return customers. It give validation of what we do, although it won’t make us rich, it give us purpose. As I have written several times, and I believe wholeheartedly that life requires that purpose, I still have so many things to do both here and in my home in England.

It was a perfect day for a bike ride, we first went to the cemetery to see how the flowers we planted were looking. Dave’s grave is sheltered by trees that border the cemetery, Kelli talked about his love of the sun, so it was a bit unfortunate that he wasn’t buried under it.

We took a different route back, nice to see different scenery now that the trees are in leaf. The road took us right to the end of point west, then we came back along south shore checking if there were any eggs outside the house, but there wasn’t.

We needed to get some furniture finished, having to work on the garden took a bit more time than we anticipated, but there were three pieces ready to be painted.

The frog seems to be happy in the pond, it is regularly checked throughout the day, we need to find a mate for her.

29th May 2024

It was another crazy Wednesday, places to go and stuff to do.

I had a bill to pay at my dentist, apparently he bills separately, and as he is so quick at his inspection, I kept him waiting for payment, I think that’s fair.

There was another visit to Plato’s, ( I really don’t know where she keeps all this stuff, it’s only a small house, I’m sure there are no secret rooms that I don’t know about) she took in two large bags crammed full.

Oh now it was a drive to the UBS store so that Kelli could return a load of returns to Amazon. I mean there was a lot, parcel after parcel came out of another large bag, each one scanned and labelled. I stood in amazement, I know our house is a regular stop for the Amazon van, but I didn’t appreciate how often they delivered.

We did our usual food shopping before returning to Plato’s to collect the cash and any clothes they didn’t want.

By the time we returned home it was lunchtime.

I had some jobs on my list to do which did include scraping and sanding, so it wasn’t a total loss.

28th May 2024

Sustainability is a word that often gets thrown around, and even mixed into environmental and climate change discussions, but I have always believed that it is vital to conserve and replenish the resources we have.

Sustainability’s definition is:-

“Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

I was brought up at a time when I had to clear my plate before I could leave the table. Rationing had just finished, but the idea of wasting food was not acceptable. It had stuck with me since, I hate waste and try to conserve as much as possible.

I had just watched a film about a young furniture designer who has made sustainability the core of his business. He uses coppiced timbers extensively in his designs and uses the waste to make into brickets that he sells for log burners. He is also experimenting with a fungus that he adds to wood chips to “ Grow” products.

Most woodworkers rarely throw away off-cuts until they can’t move, which is my case.

In the US the thought of driving fuel efficient automobiles never crossed their minds, although today’s prices has made them think.

Electric cars are not the answer, there aren’t countries that could generate enough electricity to power them. We seemed to be coaxed into believing that it’s the only alternative, but there are thousands of vehicles parked in fields awaiting customers.

Industry is trying to follow sustainable principles by using reprocessed plastics in furniture and textiles, but often this costs more than virgin materials. I am excited that plastic waste from the oceans are now being used, and communicating the message in their marketing material.

I was always concerned with the amount of chipboard that was sent to landfill, I even suggested developing “Green line” products that utilised board sizes better and minimised waste.

Worktops would have been smaller, and cheaper. The idea was poo pop’d, as not practical, but it saddened me to see the bins still full of usable material.

Both myself and Kelli get a kick out of what we do, sustaining the life cycle of a simple dresser may be a small thing, but keeps our conscience clear.

26th May 2024

The first of the vegetable planting happened today. There were four plastic pots of onions and a couple of dill to set into the large raised bed.

It was great to start this years crop, hoping that everything comes up. The asparagus that we planted a couple of years ago are still delivering, every day there seems to be a new batch to pick.

Kelli has a planting plan, something about what gets grown together to protect everything from insects and other undesirables.

We went to the cemetery to plant new things at Dave’s grave. It’s never easy going there, he went too soon, and we miss him. As it was Memorial Day tomorrow we planted a flag, he was a Korean veteran, so it was a fitting tribute.

Many graves had flags making a colourful site. The Stars and Stripes is still a symbol that Americans are proud on, regardless of their political views, and that is were the sadness lies.

It is still a divided nation, and it’s getting worse as the election gets closer. The only thing that is common is fear. No one is talking about unity, the democrats will stop at nothing to stop Trump. I have stopped watching any of the main stream media, it is so totally biased, I hate it.

I don’t care who wins the election, as long as I can still travel when I want, I don’t give a toss.

America will get the president they deserve.

25th May 2024

It’s gone, the shredded tree is no longer piled up in the drive. There was one last push to fill the remaining area, and the small amount left was piled in one of the compost bins for any further needs. I admit, I was glad as I swept the last remnants into the bucket, but the garden is now looking better.

Straight after breakfast we had to collect a small desk from the north side. This is the style that we have bought before that is relatively easy to convert into matching side tables.

When we arrived at the house there there were four vehicles lined up on the driveway, and two trucks in the garage, there was even white lines painted on the drive to denote each parking spot. A young lad came out to meet us, I asked him if he was also selling cars, he saw the funny side, thank goodness.

The temperature was a bit cooler, but it was still sunny, and pleasant to work in.

We stopped off at the corner shop to buy stuff for our party for Memorial Day, plus the necessary bottle of wine, this is my medicine, relieves pain and boosts my tolerance, and as I will be tending the grill I will need to be happy.

24th May 2024

I suppose it was inevitable that we would end up at a garden centre, I’m surprised that we have lasted this long. There were a few gaps in the flower beds, once we cleared the grass and weeds, that needed to be filled.

We chose today because it is the Memorial Day weekend, so tomorrow will be crazy with all the guilt riddled families buying up all the baskets and set arrangements, and the staff know it. They are smiling and chatty with everyone, the cash register are ringing constantly, and they take advantage of the relatively short season.

Our specific requirements went straight out the window as soon as we stopped the car, luckily I chose the smallest trolley, but that quickly filled. We even got a new plant for the pond, well it was for the frog actually, the existing stuff growing is a bit manky.

Once returned I continued to lay wood chips, it has made a big difference, there is definition now, the paths are places where we can walk and not hidden by the wild undergrowth.

It’s been three days hard work, but worth every drop of sweat.

There is still a pile of shredded tree in the drive, but it’s much smaller now, there is also heat coming out of the centre where the leaves are starting to rot, it a race against time before it spontaneously combusts.

There was an amazing incident that happened in the back garden.

I had been cutting the grass and I moved a bench on to some unlevel ground, Kelli went to sit on the corner, the bench flipped up and she slid gracefully on to the ground. I wasn’t sure if to laugh because she went quiet, and laughing would only heighten her embarrassment, so I thought, but then she started laughing, phew! That could have done easily gone the other way.

Fortunately she landed on grass, so no damage, except to the grass.

23rd May 2024

The wood chip mountain was as tall as ever, after our efforts yesterday it didn’t seem to make a dent.

There was a lot of work planned today, that must reduce to heap considerably.

There was another complete bed to fill, but that required removing grass and weeds first.

The city truck collected the overflowing green waste with a clunk, the lumps of sod that I had removed did weigh a lot, but as soon as the bin was emptied, I started filling it up again.

I even had to wear a wide brimmed hat, I didn’t care what I looked like but I had to protect my head.

I set about digging out parts of the old grass trying to reclaim as much dirt as I could, whilst Kelli came behind to spread the chips. Digging was the worst part, as the afternoon progressed the aches began.

I was bouncing around from one end of the garden to the next trying to give Kelli areas to work on.

I must have pulled up some plants I shouldn’t have removed, these were spotted and replanted.

We learnt the lesson about keeping up with the weeding although we had the wild look that we wanted, it needs to be managed better.

The day took its toll, we had done a lot, and the pile has visibly reduced, so another day on it will hopefully finish the job.

The early shower felt fantastic, the dirt washed away just leaving the aching joints, but it’s worth it.

22nd May 2024

Oh the routine of it all. The wood chip pile is still there, it’s looks bigger than it did yesterday.

We did the weekly shop, and then moved more materials to complete the first flower bed.

“ We must have used half of it” Kelli optimistically announced, oh no, I thought, not even a quarter.

There is still lots to cover, we did the flower circle and a small bed at the front of the house, moving closer to the half way point.

At least the weather was a little cooler, the breeze was welcomed, but I used the opportunity to burn a lot of offcuts that I’ve been meaning to do for ages.

The smell of grilled food wafted past my nostrils, it was wonderful, I can’t wait to get our grill going as Memorial Day is coming up.

21st May 2024

It was set to be the hottest day so far, so my idea was to take it as easy as possible.

The sound of tree munching was close by, we had noticed the red crosses against a few tree trunks on our walks, so it was to be expected. So with this noise in the background, Kelli made her “ I’ve just had an idea” announcement. This usually sends the dogs scuttling away, and me with the dread of having to add yet another job to my list.

“Let’s see if they will give us the wood chippings for our garden” she had heard a podcast where it was mentioned that the tree people were only to glad to give this stuff away. We got on our bikes and rode to the next street where the action was happening. The tree they were working on was enormous. There was the cutter man at the top of an extended mechanical arm chopping through the boughs and letting them drop to the ground. Others would throw it into the muncher letting it do the job of chipping it into small pieces.

In a lull of activity Kelli talked to one of the men about taking the chippings. He was happy to drive the truck to our place and dump it in our driveway.

And that is what happened, the truck arrived and dumped at least ten cubic yards on the drive, it was vast, there was enough material to raise the level of our garden another two feet.

Now we had the job of moving it, and spreading it around the garden.

On the hottest day we were lugging plastic tub fulls of wood bits and laying it in the beds. The sweat was dripping, my eyes were stinging, and I was needing to drink gallons of water to replace what I was loosing.

It was hard work, and it hardly made a dent in the mound. With the price of mulch what it is, we must have several hundred dollars worth sitting outside.

Needless to say we didn’t get much furniture done, but I did an experiment where I could use up the number of old wooden cabinet doors.

Cutting them to the same size, mitring the corners and gluing them together I turned it into a storage box, I’m not saying it won’t set the world on fire, but I have a lot of doors to do something with, and this could be a good way of using them up.

We finally sold the bench, at a bloody knock- down price, but it was sitting around, and Kelli threatened to repaint it, so taking a lower offer saved that waste of effort.

20th May 2024

It was a day of thunderstorms, one in the morning and the other late afternoon.

The rain is torrential, so heavy that the view is obscured, like looking through a sheer fabric.

The water was rushing down the road heading for the lake, the circle was complete.

I watched the radar images, the timing was spot-on.

We managed to finish one long dresser and we changed the handles on another.

There had to be a reason why it hadn’t sold, it was a safe colour, but on reflection, the handles might have been a bit heavy for the scale of the piece. We managed to get pictures before the second storm hit.

It had been a difficult night, Kelli woke up early, and not able to go back to sleep, meant she was not in the best of moods. But despite that, we got done what we needed to.