Oiling the Deck and Frogs in the Gutter

Ok, I think it's "grab-bag" time again. I seem to have a collection of unrelated things to shovel out onto the ether.

First up, it's been a while now since we had our deck installed. The recommendation locally was to use "burnt" oil. That is, used motor oil. That didn't sound too good to me, what with knowing there's a strong liklihood of contamination of the oil with heavy metals and other chemical changes in the oil from the engine processes over time. So, I opted for new 30wt Texaco.

Cody got started, luckily on a day where we had no rain and made great progress. Actually, he got better than half done yesterday, finishing it this morning. It took almost a whole case of oil.

Cody Finishing the Deck

Now, I know you're probably saying in your mind, something about the runoff, pollution, etc. I thought that too. That is, until I saw how speedily the wood absorbed the oil. You could watch it soaking in. And we only put on a single light coat. I don't think there will be much chance of runoff with it being absorbed into the deck the way it has. Besides that, down here, the major concern is bugs. Bugs eating your wood, even preserved wood will eventually fall prey to the little buggers. The popular wisdom is to use oil to prevent them from attacking. It also really brought the wood to life. The grain of the wood just leaps out at you.

I did take a check on the canal this morning after a light shower. There wasn't even a sheen, so I'm confident there is no runoff.

Sometime yesterday morning, while I was taking a shower, Dianna was being courted by a rather large frog, who had climbed up the down spout for the gutter. In this picture, he's about two feet from the very top, and in fact, later moved up and into the gutter itself. After that, we sort of lost track of him.

Mr. Frog Visiting

And showing that we're moving little steps at a time, getting closer to installing the mosaic, here's Cody (he's a busy man) painting some blue trim on the pump house. He'll next finish with the terracotta color on the walls. I've had him leave the face bare, as that's where I'm going to stick the mosaic. Any painting needed after it's installed will be handled at that time. I just don't want anything to interfere with the adhesion of the mosaic to the concrete.

Blue Trim Going Up