It's been a busy week or so. We had the deck repaired. Many boards were soft and a few were down right rotten. Then the deck needed sanding and some other things repaired including the benches. And finally, the tree stump that stuck up in the middle of the lower deck needed to go.
It turned into a week long venture. After they completed the upper deck that wraps around the house, we hit WalMart and Home Depot for some plants. Rather than play "earth mother" this year, I'm buying the majority of my plants. But as we enjoyed the tomatoes so much last year, that was one of the first things I purchased as I wanted to get the good selection. We will have several kinds this year and I'm going to put the tomato cages in as soon as I plant. I left this go too long last year. I also got parsley, thyme, oregano, basil, sage, dill and rosemary. I also got some flowers including coleus, which I had trouble finding last year. Of course, being in the Norther Tier, we got frost the past two nights. I covered them up but as you can see in the picture above, the coleus got a bit frost bit. We went back to WalMart today to get some mulch and a great many of their plants which were outside were black from the frost. Hope that is the last of the frost! It was 27 this morning.....BRR!!
As you can see, the middle deck had boards replaced. They then sanded everything and gave it two coats of stain. Now the stain is another story. B tried several kinds before finding one we liked - others were too light or too dark or just "not right". The stain came from WalMart and when he went back to get some, they were out. By last Friday the guys had used all the stain we had and we knew we had to find some as our WalMart was not expecting a delivery in for several days. So B called around and we found 4 cans in Mt. Pocono which is not around the corner. But we took a drive there, got the 4 cans and then stopped at the Shop Rite there as we don't have one around here. Monday it rained and Tuesday, when they started on the decks they clearly were going to use up all the 4 cans and need some more. BACK TO THE PHONE. B located another 5 cans in Milford and went for a drive to get them while I remained home. When all was said and done, we had 2 cans left. We will be staining the deck railings ourselves and he is going to also stain the railroad ties we have so I'm sure we will finish it all. Today, while at our WalMart, we picked up 1 can so we are hopeful we have sufficient for the rest of the job we will do. The deck is finished and the benches and such looks great. It's nice to walk along and not zig zag to miss soft spots. This week, if the weather cooperates, I'll be planting the tomatoes and such. I mean it IS May!
And while all this was going on we had looked at Test Kitchen on the local PBS channel and they were making a "modern" Coq au Vin. Really did look good. So, I downloaded the recipe and here it is, bubbling away. I made it Monday and boy, it was good. There is a little left so we will have that tonight. I'm going to take the chicken off the bone, heat it in the sauce and serve it over mashed potatoes. Yum yum!
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