One of the flurries of activity

These pictures aren't really about animals, though it might look that way. They are examples of why we needed to do something with the deck again this year. When we moved to the (non)mid-west ten years ago, our house did not have a deck, it just had a sliding glass door drop-off to the yard. After we had been here for a few years we were able to add the deck and then stained it the following spring. (For some reason it had to age a little while before that could be done. Don't ask me why, I am just repeating what I was told at the time.)
A few years later it needed to be redone, and the time had come, once again, for it to need re-staining. Apparently if you use translucent stain it lasts just about three years before you see wood instead of stain. Interestingly enough, that is what it says on the can too. Anyways, this was the summer it needed to be done. Of course this required a fair amount of work, mostly on Hubband's part (on account of our regular summer help not being home and we didn't get our act together to have Vet-Girl do it before she left for grad school).

 

I did help with the moving of plants off of the deck onto the patio, making and distribution of ice tea while work was done, and entertaining of animals in the house that really wanted to go see what was happening on their deck. The what was happening involved masking stuff (like the house itself) and stripping what stain was left with nasty stuff that animals didn't need all over their feet, despite what they may have thought about the subject.

 

That part of the deck project took two weekends but fortunately the animals were allowed out there during the week. Unfortunately all the normal deck furniture was down on the patio, but the bench got a bit more use than normal.

 

The next part of the deck project involved paintbrushes and rollers. I was still in charge of animal and ice tea wrangling; I guess I must be pretty good at them. (I must admit to also being in charge of general replenishing of the fuel consumption needed for the general labor contractor as well.)
Of course, after all the paintbrushes and rollers were put away and everything was dry, I helped with the returning of plants and furniture to their proper places. And since I was done with the basset herding job, they got to give everything the required thorough inspection.

 

This time we used an opaque stain that the can says lasts ten years, which sounds way better than doing this every three! Now we just need to do the favorite chairs too. Well, whenever I can stop knitting and stay out of them long enough.