Another Lifetime to go

11th December 2023

The sleet that had fallen yesterday had frozen, across the road at Larry’s place someone had turned up to get a snow plough repaired.

I could hear the sound of ratcheting tools frantically working in the cold air.

Lots of truck drivers around with ploughs on the front, and many earn extra money cleaning roads and driveways.

These are definitely days that I do not want to work outside, unless fleece lined clothes are the order of the day.

Kelli had a doctors appointment this morning, so first we had to lure Milly into the cage, this was before her walk, so she is still pretty lively.

Eventually, with the aid of a couple of treats we did it, then it was off to Plato’s. Did I mention that, yes Kelli was delving even deeper into her closet and found more clothes she didn’t need. It’s like finding a new seam of gold, you have to chip away for a while, then it’s revealed. Not that the closet ever looks empty, what remains has a chance to breathe again, and you can hear the sigh.

Typical Kelli, she waited until the very last minute to leave Plato’s, giving herself ten minutes to get to Zeeland. However that was not taking into account the two cars in front of her trying to join the main traffic. These two vehicles had nowhere to go, there was no movement even when there was obviously gaps in the traffic.

With the clock now ticking down a few blasts on the horn signalled her frustration. In most of my driving life the number of times I’ve had to use the horn could be counted on one hand, but here, our vehicle may need a horn service.

Anyway we were a few minutes late for her appointment, now for some bone clicking.

10th December 2023

The table was being collected today, but first we had to drive to Grandville to collect a desk.

With a bit of luck this will already be sold to a lady who has already bought two dressers that we are holding until March 2024.

This will be converted into two side tables, a favourite with the marketplace.

The place was a large warehouse filled with all kinds of stuff. There were already three desks that were spoken for, so we were fortunate to get one.

Once we were back I just had to wax the table top for a final time, making it really smooth and shiny.

The customer was excited to see the finished product results.

I was happy with the response, it became a labour of love, but I was glad to see it go.

Then it was dog walking day, and although it was sleeting we dressed appropriately and proceeded around our normal route.

Milly requires a lot of exercise to drain that energy she has as a one and a half year old puppy.

There was then an appointment at Kelli’s mum for ice cream at four, but we should have been there at three, so everyone else had left. Not to worry, I had a bowl of vanilla and chocolate that I savoured.

Afterwards we had to climb the stairs to rooms that are no longer used other than storage to search out Christmas decorations.

There were carrier bags full of stuff for different seasons, something that is common here.

But nothing was organised, Kelli’s old bedroom was filled with, in my opinion, junk, and things needed to be stored more appropriately.

Well we found a few things and carried them downstairs.

Getting back home, we let Milly out of the cages, of course she just wanted to play. Not the best time because we had to make dinner, and eventually sit and eat it.

So there was unwanted activity for a while, until she got worn out, then she sat next to Kelli and fell asleep snoring loudly.

We are continually revising our routine, to find the best way of controlling her energetic nature.

Peanut butter in a cone can give us a good thirty minutes of peace and quiet, and boy that is welcomed.

9th December 2023

So we failed at fostering, It was bound to happen, having two dogs in the house for so long made the decision for us.

Therefore we decided to adopt her.

I was certain that was going to happen one day, I just didn’t think it would happen so soon.

Fortunately the humane society were have a pre Christmas clear out, so instead of having to pay 175 dollars we only paid 50, but there was the cage and other dog paraphernalia to consider.

We were given all this gear when we collected our cherub, now we had to return them.

The process was quick, a document to sign and that was that, she was ours.

This whole situation has caused us to hide all shoes, and anything that Milly, her new name, can get her teeth into.

Nothing is safe at the moment, including body parts. One of the things she loves to do is chew madly at her toys, often inches away from my delicate area, I just sit there hoping that she keeps focused on what’s she’s doing.

After all the excitement, we finished off our latest creation, taking it outside to take pictures.

I also finished the top to the coffee table, after five coats of polyurethane it looks super, and ready to be refitted to the base.

8th December 2023

Wow they come around fast, another weekend looming.

With another day of shredding toys ahead, I have changed the pre breakfast routine.

Now when the hounds are let out to do their functions I have to go out and chase Amelia around the garden to use up some of the pent up energy, if not she’s into everything.

We have a morning walk trying to keep control of the three bitches who all have a direction they want to go, except Dharma who trails behind.

On route we encountered three individuals walking their hound. They looked new to the job as the leash was new, and they obviously were inexperienced as we approached their dog reacted to ours, as expected. At this point, one of women dug into the bag she was carrying and pulled out a small bag of ice and throw it to the ground. This was supposed to subdue the animal but instead scared it. This was really abusing the dog, and Kelli called them out on it. Of course they didn’t like it and shouted back but by then we were way past, and often in those situations you think of things to say afterwards, but we will keep an eye out for them again.

7th December 2023

We managed to sell the mid century dresser last night, so there was a delivery to organise.

I have been adding finishing coats to the coffee table top, I’m up to three with possibly another two to get the smoothness it needs.

Amelia was doing her thing this morning, ripping more toys and following me around everywhere.

She got a bit close to Dhama who was in her place on the sofa. There was a baring of teeth and a snap leaving Amelia with a couple of teeth marks on her cheek. This was not what we wanted to happen. Kelli is in contact with the person from the humane society who is an expert on animal behaviour. Our dogs are setting boundaries that Amelia has to learn.

The delivery of the dresser was interesting, we had to take it to the car park of a community bank in the town. We took several tries to get on to the correct road, because some were closed due to roadworks.

Finally the transfer was done, and we drove back home to bedlam.

6th November 2023

The day dawned, everything was quiet in the dogs room.

We didn’t have the best of nights, mainly preempting what might happen in the morning.

We each had our roles, I would be at the door to let them outside whilst Kelli opened the door to the dogs room and open Amelia’s cage.

To our relief they all followed each other out into the back garden.

Kelli went out to see if the new girl would do her piss and poo. My job was to dish out the food.

As soon as the door is opened they all rushed in like their lives depended on it.

From that on, she was much calmer, she tried to play with the others, but they weren’t keen, so there were the occasional growls to indicate their disinterest.

After breakfast it was walkie time, the first time there were three dogs to control, and it took a bit of getting used to.

Several times of the day we put her in the cage whilst we worked, of course there had to be calming doggie music playing to chill her out.

We didn’t want to come back inside and find all our shoes shredded. This also gives our dogs a chance to rest as they are guarded most of the time.

It is like having a child running about, getting under our feet and needing attention.

There were plenty of toys in a basket that had been generally destroyed by Phoebe in the past. She used to tear the squeaker out, then leave the rest. Amelia on the other hand takes this to another level. The fabric part is torn to shreds and the stuffing is all over the floor, the place looks like a crime scene.

I bought her a bone from Menards, once she got her jaws around it she didn’t stop until it had gone.

It certainly a bit different around here, we’re hoping that life settles down a bit so we can get back to normality.

5th December 2023

Well we might have done something that would change our lives.

Kelli had found two free pieces of furniture but we had to travel to Allandale to collect them.

At least it was in a different place to the usual area of free stuff, Hudsonville.

It took just over half an hour to get there, the house was large and impressive, within an estate of equally impressive buildings.

The pieces were outside a barn a small distance away from the main house.

The furniture always looks smaller than you imagine, and as we wanted both, it was a puzzle trying to get them both to fit.

We had to bungee the back door, but everything was on board.

The drive back was uneventful, we offloaded the pieces in Kelli’s mum’s garage then headed home for some lunch.

This I stress was not the life changing event.

The next thing on our list was a visit to the Harbour humane society. We missed out on one foster, but we wanted to check out some others. This time we took our two with us, so there were quite a few whines from them as we traveled north towards Grand Haven.

Kelli was excited to meet another potential dog that we had seen the last time.

Amelia, yes that was her name, had a difficult life having a few failed adoptions behind her, and she was favourite.

Of course there were many in the kennels that would melt your heart, including a boxer mix that looked so cute. That was my choice as Boxers are my favourite, but we found out that she didn’t mix well with other dogs, and had even attacked a cow. We couldn’t imagine how something so small could tackle such a large animal.

So we chose Amelia, and introduced her to Dhama and Phoebe. There was a bit of growling mainly from Dhama the alpha, but on the whole the body language was positive, so we decided to foster her.

The society provided the cage, bedding and food and we would keep her until someone came along to adopt her.

The drive back home was particularly quiet, Amelia was in her cage in the back with our two on the rear seats.

Once we got back the fun started.

Amelia was hyper, Dhama almost choked on her own growls and Phoebe was standing her ground.

It was understandable that the new girl was in an unfamiliar environment, and even we were uneasy with the atmosphere. There were two “accidents” but once in her cage she settled down and whilst I was working in the same room she was okay.

The thought was how tomorrow might go, had we made a mistake? That was a question that would be asked at a different time.

4th December 2023

After a bit of a restless night for both of us, we tried very hard to put it behind us. Kelli is doing well to control the frustration of not being able to get back to sleep after a toilet break.

We managed five hours, which isn’t good but better than nothing. Getting up early, having a good breakfast I was able to get started in the garage early.

I made great progress on the table top, finishing the last of the squares. It had been quite therapeutic scraping carefully each of them.

Working on that in between helping Kelli stripping the dresser we collected last night.

We’ve noticed that Don, Larry’s old lodger, has turned up again. His van has been parked round the back for the last few days and nights.

I think he spends the night in it, as he runs his engine for hours.

He used to sleep in Larry’s basement, but as he drinks a lot, he had to leave.

Now he will only leave, to refuel and to buy more booze. When he left this morning, his empties were left on the driveway.

3rd December 2023

We were supposed to drive to Hudsonville to collect a couple of free dressers, but the person got confused and gave them to someone else.

Kelli was not impressed, but she managed to find one close by, but it cost ten bucks.

However, she also managed to sell the four chairs on our weekend sale, meaning we didn’t make as much on them that we should have.

I did more scraping on the table top, and set about trying to repair a drawer from the “side of the road” dresser. Unfortunately the front was twisted, and I’ve run into those issues before.

The drawer never sits correctly in the dresser, so now I have three drawers to make.

We had to Kelli’s mum to move her autumn stuff upstairs and bring down her Christmas stuff.

This included the tree that I set up in front of the window, plugging it in only to discover that only have the lights were working. I expect I will be back to check then one by one to find the faulty one.

Kelli found another dresser for eight buck at a town called Dorr.

We collected the dresser from a mobile home park out in the wilderness, we had intended to drive on the collect the other piece, but the chairs were being collected at a specific time so we had to return home to get them ready.

A lady had driven for an hour to buy these, and she did like them, fortunately. I helped to load them into her truck and off she went.

Now we had to remove the dresser from our vehicle and set off, to collect our next furniture piece, you could say we were going door to Dorr.

It took us forty minutes to get there, longer than we thought, but the piece had potential, so the trip was worthwhile.

Driving down I could see most houses had Christmas decorations up and shining bright.

Most people start straight after thanksgiving, everywhere it looks wonderful, if nothing else it brightens up the gloomy places at least once a year.

2nd December 2023

We were determined to finish the mid century dresser today. It needed more finish to the top and two drawer fronts. This meant bringing them into the house to dry, but we did it.

We got pictures of it and it was posted on Marketplace.

We now have two dressers purchased by the same person that we have to keep until March.

The only place to store them is the room off the garage that had to be cleared out.

There were all the drawers and doors from the old kitchen that we had been saving, for what reason? Not sure.

With the two dressers safely stored, I had to make two guides for drawers for the mid century piece. I dragged the saw outside, which was getting much colder, and cut up some oak to make them.

For some reason sawdust was going everywhere although I had a bag that is supposed to collect the dust. I think I will have to connect a vacuum to it, otherwise I will continue to get covered in the stuff.