Success

Well, persistence does in fact pay off.  The plan for this weekend was to finish up stripping the deck no matter how long it took.  I am happy to say that we didn't in fact end up spending the entire weekend working on it, but with the help of a fabulous power tool we were done in four hours!

So now we come to the second lesson learned from this deck stripping experience:

FORGET THE CHEMICAL STRIPPERS, RENT A POWER SANDER

Novel, right?  But, had we done this to begin with we would have saved hours of time, hundreds of dollars and I wouldn't still have chemical burn scars on my arm.  You live and learn.

Anyway, on to the sander.  We rented the most aggressive sander that Home Depot had.  It was essentially just a huge belt sander. We used 80 grit sandpaper (and went through five of them). In preparation, we screwed all of our deck screws a bit deeper so as not to rip the sandpaper and/or take the finish off the top of the screws (I do not know if masks are necessary, but I was already having asthma issues and didn't think inhaling deck stain would help this).

Whew, this girl needs a tan.

We took turns (because this does get a bit rough on the shoulders).  While Eric sanded the top, I would work on the sides with a hand held belt sander.  After getting off all of the old stain, we switched to a 150 grit sandpaper and smoothed everything out.

Four hours later, the deck looked perfect!

At this point, we would have loved to have started staining again, but the weather was threatening.  Plus, we have some more staining research to do before application.  We are not going to make this same mistake twice.   

So instead we headed out to the garden to get a bit of work done- weeding is a constant process.  It is looking good though.

Things are starting to grow!!!

Eric also got his bean tepees up.  I actually have no idea what the bean tepees are about, but he seems to have a vision.  I personally am envisioning Jack and the Beanstalk with the size of these tepees.  I think he just wanted to use a sledge hammer on top of a ladder (while drinking a beer which is sitting in the foreground).  Always testing the safety limits...

This is a little mini greenhouse for our okra.  We haven't had much success growing it in the past and we are hoping the the additional heat created by the greenhouse will help us out.  We secretly southern Colorado folk are craving some fried okra.

My parents arrive this Thursday to help us landscape portions of the yard!  We are in a race to clean up the yard more prior to their arrival and clean up the house.  It should be really interesting to learn about planting beds and flowers and I promise to recap all that we find out!

The Crops are Planted

In addition to working on the deck last weekend (I am still trying to mentally recover from that), we finished up planting the garden.  The weekend started on Saturday morning with a new addition to our tool family.

Quincy is learning young to appreciate tools too!

Eric and his brother Nathan decided to go in on a tiller together and within about 30 minutes of purchase, it was already fired up and being used in our garden. 

Eric in his element...

Then we got to work making our rows off tilled dirt and planting.  Here is an overview of our garden that I created through GrowVeg.com .

It's pretty hard to read, but here is the summary of what we planted:

• Raspberry bushes
• Pumpkins- Atlantic giants, baby boos, baby bears and Cinderella pumpkins
• Birdhouse Gourds
• Summer and Winter Squash- hubbards, patty pan and crock necks
• Beans
• Sugar Snap Peas
• Garlic- actually planted months ago
• Assorted Herbs
• Okra
• Beets
• Onions- planted months ago
• Carrots
• Tomatoes- Beefsteak, Cherokee Purple, Pineapple and some Black Cherry
• Peppers- jalapenos, green, red and yellow bell peppers
• Irises- to line the front of the garden

Once things start to sprout, I will post some pictures.  Right now it is looking like a lot of dirt with little signs of lettuce and peas starting to peak out.  I cannot wait for fresh tomatoes though!

We Fought the Deck and the Deck Won

Yes, it was one of those types of weekend...  A weekend when we sit back on Sunday evening and say to one another, "what the heck just happened?".  This weekend dealt us some big time DIY lessons.  What is this DIY lesson we have been dealt, you may be asking?  Here is goes, you ready for it?

DO YOUR RESEARCH BEFORE EVER TRYING TO STAIN YOUR DECK FOR THE FIRST TIME.

No, reading the stain can does not constitute research.  The can lead us astray, in fact.  It made staining seem easy (like how I am displacing blame onto a paint can?).  Dang you stain can.

Moving on, this weekend was spent attempting to strip (god only know how many) layers of stain off our deck.  It turns out that even though it is suggested that people roll stain onto a deck with a paint roller, you CANNOT roll over a surface that you have already gone over once.  This is makes no sense to me though because you usually touch the same surface multiple times when using a roller.  Anyway, our rolling technique caused a patch-work quilt affect on our deck.  Some spots looked great and others looked red (we used a semi-transparent light cedar stain).  The multiple stain layers had also started peeling.

Our initial plan of attack was to use a deck stain stripper, mop it on and spray it off with our garden hose.  We started off by dragging out our enormous tarp to protect all surrounding plants.  Deck stripper is some really nasty stuff; I know because one side of my face and my arms are covered in chemical burns.  Attractive.

Then we lined up our chemicals and go to mopping it on.  Also, we moved Chloe into the house for those of you that may be worried.  We may have some chemical burns today, but Chloe was very well protected inside.

Round one was unfortunately, not successful.  It was time to call in the big guns, and by that I mean a pressure washer.  Sunday was spent like this:

Like those overalls?

Note- pressure washing is generally not good for your deck.  It can destroy the wood.  We however, had no other option.  

Eight hours and three coats of stain stripper later, we had this:

Ugh...  What a mess.  The deck won for this weekend.  Progress was obviously made, but not what you would expect after 8 hours of work and $300 in chemicals and pressure washer fees.  Last night we gave up and recovered from our lack of success the best way we know how- guacamole and mojitos.

So, here is our new plan of attack for next weekend- sanding.  Today, I will be heading over to Home Depot to buy copious amounts of sandpaper and next weekend you can pity us as we go at this deck once again.  This better work.  I did mention to Eric though that in the time we have spent stripping, we probably could have ripped off and flipped over every board.  I guess that is our back up plan if the sanding isn't successful...

We Are Going to Turn Into Green Chile

Although Eric and I are Colorado people, part of my New Mexico upbringing has definitely ingrained itself in our Rocky Mountain life- green chile.  Oh green chile, how I love thee!!!  Luckily, Eric is hooked now as well so MANY of our dinners (lets be honest, breakfast and lunches too) include green chile.

So, today I am going to share the recipe for another of my favorite green chile recipes, which also uses a lot of eggs!  Bonus points for anything that uses eggs because in a few short months our chickens will be laying and we are going to need some egg laden recipe ideas.  It's a quiche; no, not one of those fru, fru fancy quiches.  This is a meaty, spicy, heart quiche.  A "man" quiche if you will (that is what I told Eric the first time I made it after he turned up his nose at the idea of quiche).

Green Chile Corn Quiche
1/4 c. green chile
2 c. frozen corn
1/4 c. cooking wine
salt and pepper to taste
3/4 c. chopped green onion
1/4 c. butter
5 eggs
1.5 c half and half
1 c. jack cheese shredded
1 c. cooked chicken chopped into bite sized pieces (optional)
pie crust (I use the frozen version for this rather than making my own)

-Remove pie crust from fridge and follow preparation instruction per box
-Cook one large chicken breast in boiling water until no longer pink inside.
-Saute all veggies in butter for 5 minutes
-Pour in wine and cook until the liquid evaporates.  Remove from heat and let cool off a bit.
-Blend together eggs, half and half, and salt and pepper
-Insert pie crust in quiche pan and spread shredded cheese over pie shell, then chicken, veggies and finally egg mixture.
-Bake at 375 degrees for 50-60 minutes.
-Let cool for a few minutes prior to serving.

Enjoy!