deckstravaganza

It is done! I was looking over my list of projects and realized I should deliberately pick one that would take advantage of such a long stretch of dry weather. Around here, there is a small window that you can complete projects that suggest a 24-72 hour drying time. Usually it is in August.

mangy deck in need of refurbishment

Enter, the back deck. When we bought the house three years ago one of my first projects was stripping and staining the back deck and the front porch. The front has fared quite well, mostly because it is protected by the porch roof. The back deck is right in the line of all weather that comes our way, brutal sun or driving rain. Once I cleared all of the plant pots and bbq off it became apparent how badly the wood needed refinishing.

wood stripped and prepped, now waiting for the next morning's stain

Tuesday was spent stripping the old stain and prepping the wood for new color. I endeared myself to the neighbors by crawling around and re-hammering in every single nail. Over the years they had popped up a bit, and were rather uncomfortable on bare feet. Not sharp but very prickly. Unfortunately there was some sort of acoustic perfect-storm where each hammer blow boomed up from the deck, reflected off the back of the house, bounced across the yard and was thrown back by a wall of trees and then back out again. Each bang was magnified and echoed. I went as fast as I could. It was definitely worth the noise. My feet are happy.

complete!

Then yesterday I got up early and stained against the sun. You're not supposed to put stain on in direct sunlight or when it is above 90 degrees. The sun only came into play near the end, but the heat index was already in the low 80's at 8 am. I was constantly bent over either the deck or the stain tray, and sweat dripped from my nose. I didn't dare stop to wipe my face beause the sun spread through the backyard faster than I expected. The stain went on and it dried for 24 hours. Tonight I moved all of the pots back out there and am going to celebrate by sticking a beer can up a bought chicken's bottom and cooking it on the green egg. Don't tell the chickens.

harry making sure that his catnip is still available
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Eggs laid in the coop Wednesday: 4
Eggs laid in the coop Tuesday: 5
Eggs laid this year: 360