Between the Raindrops

Decking is complete

Bench under construction

Erichan staining the railing

Hey, is it finished yet?

First, mark the cut lines.

Second, make the cut.

Third, add the bench framing

Fourth, put everything away. It's raining.

It’s really hard to get anything done this time of year. The temps are in the low 70’s, but the rains are persistent and inconsistent. One minute, the sun is out and the next minute, it’s raining. I’ve learned to work between the raindrops. The weather forecasts are often wrong since the monitoring stations are located down the mountainside. It’s frustrating to build in these conditions. As soon as I get set up to do some work, it rains. As soon as I put my tools away, the rain stops. On Saturday, it was threatening rain during the entire day. Fortunately, it only sprinkled and I managed to get most of the railing built. The new garage is coming in handy. Erichan has a safe place to stain the railing while it rains.

The benches, sink area, and steps need to be made.

Erika has been busy chopping up the old deck boards and bringing the pieces to the dump. The cost is 1000 yen per truckload. Driving time to the dump is about 30 minutes each way. So far, she has made two trips. There is one thing we have learned while living in the countryside...don’t leave boards on the ground. Ants love to build nests under the wood. Every kind of insect imaginable seems to find refuge under the scrap lumber. Most of the scrap lumber was rotted and unusable. The old deck had lasted for 15 years without any preventative maintenance. The new deck will get plenty of preventative maintenance and is expected to last a lot longer.   George