Money makes the world go round…

We live a very privileged existence right now not going without much that we either need or want but that does not mean we are in any way shape or form rich or affluent it just means that we choose what is important to us to spend our money on, yes the bathroom needs decorating the kitchen is tired the facias need replacing but for now big expenditure takes a backs seat while we (Jamie) concentrates on debt management while making sure we live a good life too.

Children do not realise the struggles of adulthood unless we educate them and learn what they can have and can’t have through behaviour of us as parents it would be nice to have bajillion pounds that would allow us to never go without and have everything we ever wanted right there and then, we haven’t so we cut our cloth accordingly.

Lincoln is not exempt from thinking “money grows on trees” but his sister unfortunately has come to think we are rich or at least have plenty of money and has no respect for how hard both Jamie and me work for the luxury’s of life we allow ourselves. She loves going out with Mommy because she knows mommy will always spend money on her and very often buy her what ever she wants whether it be large or small but the gratitude is fleeting once the money is spent and she can all too often switch off when the purse closes, knowing that continuing to be nice is a waste of time.

I see it in her even at the supermarket and will avoid taking her because she turns nasty when I invariably say no to all her requests and then I have to suffer the mood she goes into because she did not get her way or what she wanted, and I detest it so won’t entertain shopping with her at all. When she has her own money she loves spending it no matter what its on, sweets Dr Pepper, perfume, cosmetics, whatever it is she loves the rush of spending money but when her money has gone she almost demands that we spend money on her, and is not very pleasant if we don’t?

I love her to bits but her lack of respect for money and how hard it is to earn is easily her worst trait and she needs to learn that her “privileged” lifestyle can easily end if either of us loses our job or if she disrespects the toil that brings that money to the table.

“NO!” does not mean we don’t love her it means we love her enough to teach her that we do not always get what we want!

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Levelled up

The worst thing happened at Ice Skating tonight after Lincoln missed last week through injury Reagan was moved up a class leaving her brother  in the lower one. She looked so shocked but also immensely proud of herself as she skated over to her new class and started learning new stuff.

Lincoln was fine, although I am sure he was, ever so slightly jealous, he looked like he was doing really well so won’t be long before he levels up. Reagan on the other hand could barely do the tasks asked of her because she kept glancing up to me in the stands looking for confirmation from me that she’d done well and I gave her the thumbs up as she nearly fell over because she was looking at me and not concentrating.

Mommy arrived unexpectedly from London where she’d been all week to surprise us which thrilled both children having missed her but it was right at the end of the lesson so it was left to Reagan to explain what had happened. I do not think Lincoln apreciated the fact that she was still going on about it 2 hours later clearly she was very proud of herself but he was clearly not arsed about her achievement after having it force fed to him 20 times.

She had done really well and it was a good achievement hope she will afford him the same tolerance next week if he levels up?

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Becoming Jamie

As Jamie left Harley Street this evening, gushing at how well her day had gone, I could hear the absolute glee in her voice as she told me how well her presentation to all the bigwigs of London Womens Clinic had gone, and that she had made some of them so emotional that they actually cried, I just thought of how all the hard work was now bearing fruit,

Ever since she went to school she knew she found it easy and probably struggled to succeed because she was not challenged which is such a shame because she is so intelligent with so much potential she just needed a chance an outlet a new start a complete reset.

A life in England UK was absolutely not the life plan as she sat drinking vodka, smoking cigarettes and browsing MySpace but fate can play funny tricks on you if you are not careful. Neither Jamie or me could have ever envisaged how well the next 16 years would go but for Jamie it was a second chance to realise her academic potential and become the person she could be but this time on her own terms.

From the disappointment of missing out on her preferred course at the Open University, to eventually being accepted, graduating, starting her own business, excelling in her chosen field, being employed by one of the leading infertility clinics in the country, becoming head of a whole department within that company, trusted in managing their patient welfare and being asked to present what counselling means to their infertility clients succeeding in making the “bigwigs” realise the importance of what she does, just blows me away!

I have had the privilege of a front row seat watching this journey and can not wait to watch just how far she can go because at the moment the sky is the limit. I hope I can be there for her and where ever the next part of the journey takes her!

Well Done Dude

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Bottom

As I have blogged on many many occasions I have played pool on a Wednesday since the early 80s and I do like it but my team Steventons are struggling a bit this season and it’s now we have strong languishing at the bottom of the table.

I am the captain and if I waver or do not lead from the front how can I expect the lads to perform as a team. I had forgotten this until we came back after Christmas probably because my form had been poor and its hard to be positive with myself let alone try and motivate others, but since Christmas the team has grown a little with a modicum of success a couple of weeks ago we won our first game of the season in my absence the were beaten by top of the league but tonight it was really apparent that although disappointing last week we looked like we wanted to win and also thought we could win.

Although we went 1 nil down we stuck to the task with some good personal performances and some poor reffing did not derail the team performance. It was nice that I won my frame but it was great to see us beat Turnpike A when we went from 5 2 ahead to be pegged back to 5 4 and it was left to me and PJ to win the final frame of doubles to register our second win of the season.

Unfortunately, second from bottom Rifleman won a point at Warmingham White Lion so that keeps us at the foot of the table but it was great to be part of our second win of the season and hopefully we can keep the momentum going.

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Finishing

It took me 40 minutes to do one coat of wood preservative tonight proving that if I had done it last night at 5pm when I finished the build I could have done a second coat too. The fact that I went with Jamie shopping for a couple of hours in the afternoon, yesterday, also means I would have hit my deadline easily.

The project has given me a lot of enthusiasm to do more and create more so a very successful exercise.

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Project completed, almost!

OK, I chose not to paint my “prototype” tonight not because I did not have time but because I just thought I wanted to take some photos of it in daylight before I do, but I did meet my deadline and could easily of done a couple of coats of wood preserve this evening.

As for the build I completed it and learned so much along the way I am really happy with how it turned out and believe it is very over engineered compared to garden centre planters which do not see any screws or glue preferring to use brad nails because its cheaper and quicker I guess?

My planter feels robust sturdy and well made if I do say so myself and maybe I have spent 10+ hours on it possibly more but reckon I could make another in half the time and use cheaper, and the guys at Howarth’s reckon more suitable, materials but replicate the build.

I also feel it has reminded me that I can build anything from a plan and most things without it just takes a little longer, so my bench really should not be so daunting now and feel I need to buy a couple of sheets of 18mm ply and get it done.

Note:

DUSTY AF

You don’t need a name to make stuff but thst could be a good one if I ever want one?

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Huge tool day!

Trying to keep on track to make tomorrow nights deadline I made a late start in the shed and soon realised that the best tool to use to trim the sides to size wood be the router table which had sat in the corner since I bought it back in November and had not even been turned on let alone used in anger. It meant I spent the first couple of hours sorting out the accessories oiled on it and then setting it up accurately before I even tried to switch it on, I also chose to connect the dust extractor, I bought, to it to see what that bad boy could do too.

Using a flush trim bit first I cleaned up all the edges of the sides and it was amazing firstly how effective it was at removing stock but I was also very impressed with the extraction because there was virtually no residue escaping from its pull. The router in the table made flush trimming and rounding over so much easier, I am sure I would have spent the two hour set up doing all those tasks with my cordless trim router, and now it is setup for all future projects so it is a win win

There was a lot of sanding to do also so I connected the extraction up to my new sander and again it was very impressive not only sanding but also how little dust escaped

On a roll, I got out the Kreg K5 pocket hole jig and connected that to the extraction as well, drilling my first 32 pocket holes and using them to fix the four legs to two of the sides which is where I had to call it a day because I had achieved enough to know that barring catastrophe I will complete it tomorrow but if I carried on I was likely to rush and make a mistake.

I thoroughly enjoyed being able to use some of the tools I had not used and it felt good to actually make something using them and learn a bit about doing the type of woodwork I have been watching others do on YouTube for months. I did spend quite a bit of time today tiding sorting and setting up my workspace which will stand me in good stead going forward so tomorrow I will need to just get this project finished.

I may never sell this planter as it is my ‘first’ and my ‘prototype’ but it already looks like I know what I doing and would not be scared of more projects and actually can’t wait once I finish this one.

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On track

With all the wood bought and available I worked from the cutting list I had generated using https://www.opticutter.com/ and set about chopping it up soon realising just how good it was creating very minimal wastage meaning highly cost effective going forwards too

Once I had gotten the wood for the sides and legs cut to size it was time to start assembling them and as I did the first one I could see there was going to be opportunity to improve and refine the design but I intend to just build this ‘prototype’ without implementing them for fear of not meeting my Sunday night deadline!

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Brilliant

If I could make up a the perfect parent evening I would probably want all the teachers to light up when they saw Reagan walk towards them and sit down then I would want them to gush over her academic abilities and proceed to tell us that she is a joy to teach very conscientious self motivated and always does her best. They would say that she just needs to carry on doing what she is doing keep focused and work hard and she will do extremely well.

But, we know that doesn’t happen even though we know Reagan is self motivated when it comes to homework and she says shes doing well at school but until we are able to speak to the people teaching her to know how they think she is actually doing and if she needs help in any areas. Although we have had Parent teacher meetings since Reagan started at High School this was the first that was face to face so we walked to the school for our first appointment at 16:20 with her Maths teacher.

For the next 45 minutes all the teachers to lit up when they saw Reagan walk towards them and sit down they all gushed over her academic abilities and told us that she is a joy to teach, very conscientious, self motivated and always does her best. They said that she just needs to carry on doing what she is doing keep focused and work hard and she will do extremely well.

It was just brilliant…

She said on the way home that her ambition is to go to Sir John Deans when she leaves school and from what we had just heard she will have no problem achieving that if she carries on working hard.

The only thing that was just tarnishing the whole thing was that as parents hearing such glowing academic reports that we just thought that Home Economics would be a wasted choice in her options when her science teacher advised “triple” science would be achievable for Reagan (Although he didn’t say ‘easily’ we all knew she could do it) and her Geography teacher reassured her that all the things about Geography she liked they would be doing and very little of the thing she didn’t like which was maps and GCSE Geography was achievable for Reagan (Although she didn’t say ‘easily’ we all knew she could do it)

We will speak to SJD college and hopefully they will convince Reagan not to waste an option on a non academic subject because even on the way home she was realising science or Geography would be a better option so we will see?

Could not be more proud of her, tonight!

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Stay Focused

I did it, I bought the wood, I know what you’re thinking “So what, you’re always buying wood!” but this is a start to finish project no messing about get this thing built ‘It’s a planter for gods sake’ and I have set a dead line of Sunday night so it’s about staying focused and actually producing something!

The guys at Howarths Timber tried to put me off buying what I’d set out to buy because pre-treated timber is better for what I am using it for, far more dureable and cheaper which I agreed with but it comes in 4800m lengths (which you have to buy complete full lengths of) its green in appearance and I would have to paint it (I don’t have paint so it would be extra cost) and its rough sawn so I would have to sand it down a lot to make it look great (Yes I have a sander but I need to build not spend the next 2 or 3 days prepping)

I am going to call this my prototype, something I can learn from making and show to people (possibly…maybe?). It will be made of pine and treated with the same substance as our sheds, so it will look golden brown. From this, I can alter sizes and improve the design if required.

Pictured is the goal, that is what I am making whether it be good, bad, saleable or unsaleable I will make it exactly how Liz Fourez designed at https://lovegrowswild.com/2019/07/tall-outdoor-cedar-planter/ and if pine does not have the longevity I have to say I built 2 chairs in August 2006 and they are only just rotting beyond recovery so they lasted 15+ years with one coat of wood preservative I never retreated since 2006? I think my ‘prototype’ will be OK

The wood cost £45.62 and I intend to try and get an exact material budget for the whole project, down to cost of screws, glue wood stain etc and then get some data and opinion on how much it would sell for and then calculate how much my time is worth by comparing the two totals?

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